1. O my beloved friend chosen from Khuza'imah
Can you keep my secret if I trust you?

2. And can you convey it if I confide in you,
Complaints that have burdened my chest?

3. I adjure you by the preventers leaving Minā,
As you were told, on the night of Al-Qadr,

4. And by the black-robed ones who leaned
Their chests, and al-Mash‘ar, and the Stone,

5. Were you listening to me or am I wrong in thinking
You were hearing the finest verses of your people about me?

6. They are jealous of wealth during every state of affairs,
Yet the youths of ‘Awf grew jealous over my poetry.

7. Necklaces of mine were plundered in their saddlebags
Crying out with sorrows from prisoners’ necks,

8. Bedding rolled out for travelers, shared out
Among them, passed from mouth to mouth, from Egypt to Egypt,

9. Sung by the camel driver and chanted over their drinking
By the cheerful singer, who repeats it in song,

10. Generosities I presented freely
To every young man who did not respect my in-law kinship,

11. They sought their hands, desiring them, and courted them
With precious gifts of generosity and abundance,

12. Yet they had belonged to a people of kings other than them,
To be with the Twins or the Eagle’s Neck,

13. Too proud to be won by cunning
Or promises of lightning, or to be led under duress,

14. But when they came within the wretches’ ropes,
They conspired against them with treachery and betrayal.

15. As if they had hamstrung a neglected mare
Whose shepherds had driven off between Babylon and ‘Aqar,

16. So detour to them, and say to the one who makes amends:
Do you covet my praise but disdain my thanks?

17. Are you pleased that I should suffer loss while your palm prospers,
My hopes in you and my request be wronged,

18. While your face beneath the veil is like the full moon?
Reports have gone around that you are the best of them

19. In hospitality, when a guest weeps from the stinginess of the cooking pot,
And most reluctant to be miserly, while the year is arid,

20. And most generous when the cooking pot is flush.
You give in wealth the capacity of wealth,

21. And mend the breaks of the poor man in poverty.
So what of a virgin bride I sent to you

22. With rhyming prose from ‘Awan and from Bakr?
You were passionate for her, but then grew weary,

23. Turning your face from rewarding or mentioning me.
You paid her bride-price but took it back again—

24. Can you view marriage as legal without a bride-price?
So where is your legendary generosity, when she is not

25. Your fathers’ daughter, and the rest of ‘Alā’ and Fakhr?
You still spend freely on the exalted

26. And give from wealth and from blessings galore,
I take refuge in you from it being said about you

27. That the tribe’s generosity died with them in their graves,
And far be it from you that my goods should lose worth

28. In your hands through the increase merchandise makes from trade,
When my dromedaries have filled your pastures,

29. And the lean camels went out to pasture or were fed journey provisions,
While I have in you what grieves me apart from you,

30. And keeps for you what has pleased you until the end of time,
So if you acquire her through fair means she will build for you

31. Fortifications for your reputations with her own self,
But if you take her by force, she will touch those not of your kin,

32. Complaining under duress or speaking in self-defense.
O star of ‘Awf, dispeller of her distress,

33. Is it not time for the suitor to be shamed by my patience?
I have borne the lawsuit from you for a while for your sake,

34. So look upon me in hardship, and judge with ease,
And say, O my messenger, telling their envoys altogether,

35. And single out al-‘Abdarī Abū Naṣr in particular:
Is it right that I harnessed for you and I

36. The steeds of wishes, but now you fail to defend me?
You lured me until, when I approached her,

37. You held back from me, and the one to blame is the seducer!
Do you not remember the pact between us?

38. No! You forget it, though remembering is your habit,
You sleep through my right and cancel out my praise

39. While you took on your back the burden of that
So rise, Abū Naṣr, like the son of a free woman,

40. To defend a friend whom you have placed in peril,
Promise my messenger ample compensation

41. And win my praise—it is sweeter than abundance—
And say to the prince, son of a prince, in counsel:

42. Wait for my bounty, and beware my injury,
For I have reined in the steeds of wishes between us,